Labor and StrifeConcerns about labor issues plagued the bracero program from the start. With an eye on reducing costs and improving profits, growers saw the bracero program as a source of cheap labor. American farm workers worried that braceros would compete for their jobs and lower their wages. Many union leaders were alarmed about the use of foreign workers and how that would affect their ability to organize farm labor.

“As the program went on and on, the wages got so bad for the local workers, and the growers wouldn’t hire local workers. . . . That was the big fight that we had with Public Law 78 [authorizing the bracero program].”